DeclinetoState
07-03-2008, 09:28 PM
This week, right-wing pundit and leader of the 'beat your children' movement, Dr. James Dobson, accused Sen. Barack Obama of committing violence against Biblical teachings.
Despite Dobson being a best-selling self-help guru famous for advising parents to whip their children with sticks, every mainstream media outlet somehow managed to overlook this fact. Instead, media coverage of Dobson's remarks stripped him of any and all potential controversy with respect to his views on parenting and child beating, describing him instead with the vague and anodyne term 'Evangelical.'
True -- Dobson is a leading voice of sorts amongst some Evangelical Christians. Still, the question the media should be posing to the public is not about his religion, but about his violent views of parenting: Should a man who pushes parents to use pain to train their children have a prominent place in the 2008 presidental election or American politics at all?
Uh, no. It is high time that Americans of all political and religious persuasions looked Dr. James Dobson in the eye and said, "Leave us alone."Link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/media-whitewashes-dobson_b_109151.html)
Despite Dobson being a best-selling self-help guru famous for advising parents to whip their children with sticks, every mainstream media outlet somehow managed to overlook this fact. Instead, media coverage of Dobson's remarks stripped him of any and all potential controversy with respect to his views on parenting and child beating, describing him instead with the vague and anodyne term 'Evangelical.'
True -- Dobson is a leading voice of sorts amongst some Evangelical Christians. Still, the question the media should be posing to the public is not about his religion, but about his violent views of parenting: Should a man who pushes parents to use pain to train their children have a prominent place in the 2008 presidental election or American politics at all?
Uh, no. It is high time that Americans of all political and religious persuasions looked Dr. James Dobson in the eye and said, "Leave us alone."Link (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/media-whitewashes-dobson_b_109151.html)